Taylor Swift News: 'Shake it Off' Director Says Earl Sweatshirt's Racism Claims Are Invalid, Music Video Is 'Massively Inclusive' [Watch]
The director of Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" music video Mark Romanek is slamming critics that are calling it racist, the LA Times reports.
One critic in particular Romanek chose to address is Odd Future rapper, Earl Sweatshirt, who set the "Shake it Off" racist controversy ablaze when he tweeted his negative opinion of the video that features twerking, breakdancing and bodacious African-American background dancers.
"Haven't watched the taylor swift video and I don't need to watch it to tell you that it's inherently offensive and ultimately harmful," Earl tweeted on Monday.
haven't watched the taylor swift video and I don't need to watch it to tell you that it's inherently offensive and ultimately harmful
— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014
"Perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it's ok for you to be trill or twerk or say n*gga."
perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture — EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014
for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it's ok for you to be trill or twerk or say n*gga
— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014
During a recent Q&A with Vulture, Romanek expressed his opposition toward Sweatshirt's tweets.
"I'm a fan of his, and I think he's a really interesting artist," Romanek said. "But he stated clearly that he hadn't seen the video and didn't even intend to watch it. So, respectfully, that sort of invalidates his observations from the get-go, and it's this one uninformed tweet that got reported on and rehashed, which started this whole 'controversy.'"
Romanek continued his response by explaining that "Shake it Off" was meant to be satirical and not taken seriously.
"We simply choose styles of dance that we thought would be popular and amusing and cast the best dancers that were presented to us without much regard to race or ethnicity," Romanek said. "If you look at it carefully, it's a massively inclusive piece. It's very, very innocently and positively intentioned. And -- let's remember -- it's a satirical piece. It's playing with a whole range of music video tropes and cliches and stereotypes."
Check out Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" music video below.
Do you agree with Mark Romanek or Earl Sweatshirt's response to the music video? Share your comments below.
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